This invention relates to an improved reflective silver halide photographic element for the labeling of packages. More specifically, it relates to such an reflective label element comprising at least four separately sensitized light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers containing, in addition to the three conventional cyan, magenta, and yellow dye-forming layers, a fourth image dye-forming layer comprising a coupler wherein the dye formed by that coupler has a CIELAB hab hue angle in the range of from not less than 355xc2x0 to not more than 75xc2x0, and/or a fifth image dye-forming layer comprising a coupler wherein the dye formed by that coupler has a hue angle in the range of from not less than 225xc2x0 to not more than 310xc2x0, which increases the gamut of colors possible.
Color gamut is an important feature of color printing and imaging systems. It is a measure of the range of colors that can be produced using a given combination of colorants. It is desirable for the color gamut to be as large as possible. The color gamut of the imaging system is controlled primarily by the absorption characteristics of the set of colorants used to produce the image. Silver halide imaging systems typically employ three colorants, typically including cyan, magenta, and yellow in the conventional subtractive imaging system.
The ability to produce a silver image containing any particular color is limited by the color gamut of the system and materials used to produce the image. Thus, the range of colors available for image reproduction is limited by the color gamut that the system and materials can produce. Prior art labels of packages utilize printed dye based or pigmented inks. Printed dye based and color inks have a much larger color gamut and, thus, are better suited to produce the high intensity colors utilized in the packaging industry. Further, by printing inks, several inks can be used to achieve the desired color gamut. Printing presses utilizing up to nine separate colors are being utilized to print high quality packaging materials.
Pressure sensitive labels applied are applied to packages to build brand awareness, show the contents of the package, convey a quality message regarding the contents of a package, and supply consumer information such as directions on product use, or an ingredient listing of the contents. Printing on the pressure sensitive label is typically applied directly to the package or a printed media, typically printed using gravure printing or flexography is applied to the package. The three types of information applied to a pressure sensitive label are text, graphic, and images. Some packages only require one type of information, while other packages require more than one type of information.
Prior art labels that are applied to packages consist of a face stock material, a pressure sensitive adhesive, and a liner. The label substrate consisting of the face stock, pressure sensitive adhesive, and liner are typically laminated and then printed utilizing a variety of nonphotographic printing methods. After printing, the labels are generally protected by an overlaminate material or a protective coating. The completed label consisting of a protection layer, printed information, face stock, pressure sensitive adhesive, and liner material is applied to packages utilizing high speed labeling equipment.
Flexography is an offset letterpress technique where the printing plates are made from rubber or photopolymers. The printing on pressure sensitive label is accomplished by the transfer of ink from the raised surface of the printing plate to the surface of the material being printed. The rotogravure method of printing uses a print cylinder with thousands of tiny cells which are below the surface of the printing cylinder. The ink is transferred from the cells when the print cylinder is brought into contact with the pressure sensitive label at the impression roll. Printing inks for flexography or rotogravure include solvent based inks, water based inks, and radiation cured inks. While rotogravure and flexography printing does provide acceptable image quality, these two printing methods require expensive and time-consuming preparation of print cylinders or printing plates which make printing jobs of less than 100,000 units expensive as the setup cost and the cost of the cylinders or printing plates is typically depreciated over the size of the print job.
Recently, digital printing has become a viable method for the printing of information on packages. The term xe2x80x9cdigital printingxe2x80x9d refers to the electronic digital characters or electronic digital images that can be printed by an electronic output device capable of translating digital information. The two main digital printing technologies are ink jet and electrophotography.
The introduction of piezo impulse drop-on-demand (DOD) and thermal DOD ink jet printers in the early 1980""s provided ink jet printing systems. These early printers were very slow, and the ink jet nozzles often clogged. In the 1990""s Hewlett Packard introduced the first monochrome ink jet printer, and shortly thereafter, the introduction of color, wide format ink jet printers enabled businesses to enter the graphic arts market. Today, a number of different ink jet technologies are being used for packaging, desktop, industrial, commercial, photographic, and textile applications.
In piezo technology, a piezo crystal is electrically simulated to create pressure waves, which eject ink from the ink chamber. The ink can be electrically charged and deflected in a potential field, allowing the different characters to be created. More recent developments have introduced DOD multiple jets that utilize conductive piezo ceramic material which, when charged, increases the pressure in the channel and forces a drop of ink from the end of the nozzle. This allows for very small droplets of ink to form and be delivered at high speed at very high resolution, approximately 1,000 dpi printing.
Until recently, the use of color pigments in jet inks was uncommon. However, this is changing rapidly. Submicron pigments were developed in Japan for ink jet applications. Use of pigments allows for more temperature resistant inks required for thermal ink jet printers and laminations. Pigmented water-based jet inks are commercially available, and UV-curable jet inks are in development. Pigmented inks have greater lightfastness and water-resistance.
Digital ink jet printing has the potential to revolutionize the printing industry by making short-run, color print jobs more economical. However, the next commercial stage will require significant improvements in ink jet technology; the major hurdle remaining is to improve print speed. Part of this problem is the limitation of the amount of data the printer can handle rapidly. The more complex the design, the slower the printing process. Right now they are about 10 times slower than comparable digital electrostatic printers.
Electrophotography was invented in the 1930""s by Chester Carlson. By the early 1970""s, the development of an electrophotographic color copier was being investigated by many companies. The technology for producing color copiers was already in place, but the market was not. It would take many more years until customer demand for color copies would create the necessary incentive to develop suitable electrostatic color copiers. By the late 1970""s a few companies were using fax machines that could scan a document, reduce the images to electronic signals, send them out over the telephone wire and, using another fax machine, retrieve the electronic signals and print the original image using heat-sensitive papers to produce a printed copy.
In 1993 Indigo and Xeikon introduced commercial digital printing machines targeted on short-run markets that were dominated by sheet-fed lithographic printers. Elimination of intermediate steps associated with negatives and plates used in offset printing provides faster turnaround and better customer service. These digital presses share some of the characteristics of traditional xerography but use very specialized inks. Unlike inks for conventional photocopiers, these inks are made with very small particle size components in the range of 1 xcexcm. Dry toners used in xerography are typically 8-10 xcexcm in size.
In 1995 Indigo introduced the Ominus press designed for printing flexible packaging products. The Ominus uses a digital offset color process called One Shot Color that has six colors. A key improvement has been the use of a special white Electro ink for transparent substrates. The Ominus web-fed digital printing system allows printing of various substrates using an offset cylinder that transfers the color image to the substrate. In principle, this allows perfect register regardless of the substrate being printed; paper, film, and metal can be printed by this process. This digital printing system is based on an electrophotographic process where the electrostatic image is created on the surface of a photoconductor by first charging the photoconductor by charge corona and exposing the photoconductive surface to a light source in image fashion.
The charged electrostatic latent image is then developed using ink containing an opposite charge to that on the image. This part of the process is similar to that of electrostatic toners associated with photocopying machines. The latent charged electrostatic image formed on the photoconductor surface is developed by means of electrophoretic transfer of the liquid toner. This electrostatic toner image is then transferred to a hot blanket, which coalesces the toner and maintains it in a tacky state until it is transferred to the substrate, which cools the ink and produces a tack-free print.
Electro inks typically comprise mineral oil and volatile organic compounds below that of conventional offset printing inks. They are designed so that the thermoplastic resin will fuse at elevated temperatures. In the actual printing process, the resin coalesced, the inks are transferred to the substrate, and there is no need to heat the ink to dry it. The ink is deposited on the substrate essentially dry, although it becomes tack-free as it cools and reaches room temperature.
Photographic materials have been known for use as prints for preserving memories for special events such as birthdays and vacations. They also have been utilized for large display materials utilized in advertising. These materials have been known as high quality products that are costly and somewhat delicate, as they would be easily defaced by abrasion, water, or bending. Photographs are traditionally placed in frames, photo albums, and behind protective materials in view of their fragile and delicate nature, as well as their value. They are considered luxury items for the consumers to preserve a record of important events in their lives. They also have been considered as expensive display materials for advertising. In view of their status as luxury items, they have not been utilized in other areas of commerce.
Color gamut is often thought to be maximized by the use of so-called called xe2x80x9cblock dyesxe2x80x9d. In The Reproduction of Colour 4th ed., R. W. G. Hunt, pp 135-144, it has been suggested that the optimum gamut could be obtained with a subtractive three-color system using three theoretical block dyes where the blocks are separated at approximately 490 nm and 580 nm. This proposal is interesting but cannot be implemented for various reasons. In particular, there are no real organic based couplers which produce dyes corresponding to the proposed block dyes.
Variations in the block dye concept are advanced by Clarkson, M. E. and Vickerstaff, T. in xe2x80x9cBrightness and Hue of Present-Day Dyes in Relation to Colour Photography,xe2x80x9d Photo. J. 88b, 26 (1948). Three example spectral shapes are given by Clarkson and Vickerstaff: Block, Trapezoidal, and Triangular. The authors conclude, contrary to the teachings of Hunt, that trapezoidal absorption spectra may be preferred to a vertical sided block dye. Again, dyes having these trapezoidal spectra shapes are theoretical and are not available in practice.
Both commercially available dyes and theoretical dyes were investigated in xe2x80x9cThe Color Gamut Obtainable by the Combination of Subtractive Color Dyes. Optimum Absorption Bands as Defined by Nonlinear Optimization Technique,xe2x80x9d J. Imaging Science, 30, 9-12. The author, N. Ohta, deals with the subject of real colorants and notes that the existing curve for a typical cyan dye, as shown in the publication, is the optimum absorption curve for cyan dyes from a gamut standpoint.
Bourdelais et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,756 discusses imaging layers containing silver halide and dye forming couplers applied to both sides of a translucent base for a display material. While the display material in U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,756 provides an excellent image that can be displayed without the need for a backlight source, the image is only capable of reproducing 56% of Pantone color space.
McInerney et al in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,679,139; 5,679,140; 5,679,141; and 5,679,142 teach the shape of preferred subtractive dye absorption shapes for use in four color, C,M,Y,K based ink-jet prints.
McInerney et al in EP 0 825 488 teaches the shape of preferred subtractive cyan dye absorption shape for use in silver halide based color prints.
Kitchin et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,745 teaches the preparation of a photographic element for preparing half-tone color proofs comprising four separate imaging layers capable of producing cyan, magenta, yellow, and black images.
Powers et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,378, teaches an imaging process for the preparation of color half-tone images that contain cyan, magenta, yellow, and black images. The use of the black dye does little to improve the gamut of color reproduction.
Haraga et al in EP 0 915 374 A1 teaches a method for improving image clarity by mixing xe2x80x98invisiblexe2x80x99 information in the original scene with a color print and reproducing it as an infrared dye, magenta dye, or as a mixture of cyan magenta and yellow dyes to achieve improved color tone and realism. The addition of the resulting infrared, magenta, or black dye does little to improve the gamut.
In spite of the foregoing teachings relative to color gamut, the coupler sets which have been employed in silver halide color imaging have not provided the range of gamut desired for modem digital imaging; especially for so-called xe2x80x98spot colorsxe2x80x99, or xe2x80x98HiFi colorsxe2x80x99.
It is, therefore, a problem to be solved by providing a coupler set which provides an increase in color gamut compared to coupler sets comprised of cyan, magenta, and yellow dye forming couplers by further incorporating red dye and blue dye forming couplers.
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,282 (Bourdelais et al) to utilize a composite support material with laminated biaxially oriented polyolefin sheets as a photographic imaging material. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,282, biaxially oriented polyolefin sheets are extrusion laminated to cellulose paper to create a support for silver halide imaging layers. The biaxially oriented sheets described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,282 have a microvoided layer in combination with coextruded layers that contain white pigments such as TiO2 above and below the microvoided layer. In the composite imaging support structure described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,282 the cyan, magenta and yellow silver halide imaging layers are applied to one side of the white, reflecting side of the base.
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,099 to apply photosensitive layers on one side of a thin transparent support, expose through the thin transparent support and post image process adhere the imaging layers to a white reflective support to create a reflective image. While the imaging layers are protected, they are only applied to one side of the thin transparent support. Further, because no antihalation layer is utilized with the light sensitive silver halide imaging layers, problems such as unwanted scattering and printing platen reflection would reduce the quality of the image.
There is a need for a reflective silver halide imaging material that provides an expanded color gamut while maintaining processing efficiency.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved imaging layers.
It is another object to provide imaging material that has an expanded color gamut.
It is a further object to maintain processing efficiency.
It is another object to provide a silver halide label for packaging.
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by a decorative package comprising a package having adhered thereto a label comprising a transparent polymer sheet, and at least one dye containing layer is on each side of said sheet, wherein there are at least four separate dye containing layers and the dye containing layers comprise at least four spectrally distinct colors.
The invention provides a silver halide packaging material with an improved color gamut while maintaining typical the 45 second development time.